Competitive anxiety about their child falling behind means parents are more willing to pay for AI tools, finds new research by the University of Cologne.

The study, conducted by Prof Christopher Roth, investigated how strongly the behaviour of other teenagers’ use of AI influences parents’ decisions and found that the more young people use AI, the higher the willingness to pay.

Parents were presented with different scenarios regarding AI usage among teenagers: 20, 40, 60, or 80 per cent. For every 10-percentage-point increase in the assumed usage, the willingness to pay rose by an average of $1.38. Between 20 per cent and 80 per cent usage, the willingness to pay increased by more than 60 per cent.

For parents, the decisive factor was that their child should not fall behind other teenagers. The study also reveals that information alone about the risks, such as long-term learning losses, cannot combat this.

“Whilst the information about risks did change their attitudes towards AI as support for school-wide rules or bans increased from 44 to 57 per cent, the willingness to pay individually for an AI subscription remained virtually unchanged.

“It highlights that social forces operate with enough strength to sustain adoption of a technology that parents themselves view with ambivalence,” says Prof Roth.

The study surveyed over 2000 parents from the US, Canada, and the UK.